When it was first performed in 1945, State of the Union was a wildly popular play. It also received rave reviews. Both positive responses were largely due to the current events at the time. As Caspar H. Nannes says in his 1960 book, if the play had been performed in the nineteenth century, it "probably would not have lasted a week." Produced in the politically charged mid-twentieth century, however, Nannes notes that "its 765 consecutive performances made the play the forty-fifth longest running show in the history of the New York stage." Nannes notes that, following World War II, the American populace was more versed in politics and that the play, "national in theme and international in implications, was written for an audience presumed familiar with important political names and situations on a world basis." Indeed, the play's main themes address several issues that were of political importance, the most important...